Welcome to the Jungle
by Shaed Knightwing
Summary: "She would never kill anyone, as far as he had seen, and even after capturing him she would always let him go in the end. Perhaps she enjoyed watching them struggle for survival in this death trap of wild chaos that she had formed around their little town." - Urban Jungle AU where Danny's ice powers don't develop, featuring Amethyst Ocean; Plant!Sam Edition


_Amethyst Ocean, Plant!Sam edition_

_I don't usually write fanfiction any more but this popped up in my head some time ago and I figured if people on Tumblr liked it I may as well post it here too. Rated T for vaguely mentioned content at the end, I might just be being paranoid but meh, who cares_

_**Welcome to the Jungle**_

* * *

He didn't know how many times they had played this damn game, it could have been thirty, could have been a hundred times, some fights just blurred together some days.

They were always the same, Danny and the remainder of surviving Amity Park residents would be fighting their way through the thick, dense jungle vines, breathing heavily and sweating, whether it was due to the humidity or the impending danger of being eaten by killer plants and Amity Park's recently released zoo animals Danny wasn't entirely certain.

What he did know was that nothing happened in this jungle without HER knowing. She would come, without fail, she would find them, Danny just didn't know why she bothered.

She would never kill anyone, as far as he had seen, and even after capturing him she would always let him go in the end. Perhaps she enjoyed watching them struggle for survival in this death trap of wild chaos that she had formed around their little town. Danny knew that most of them would be dead if he weren't there to protect them.

Some of them could hold their own, Valerie had been leading her own little group of survivors, Danny's group ran into her at one point, god knows how long ago now. She had looked ragged and worn, a thousand year old woman wearing a fifteen year old skin.

Or was it sixteen? Could have been. Danny wasn't sure. He wasn't sure about many things these days. It was strange how things that seemed so important could be pushed aside and forgotten when you're constantly fighting for your life.

There was a lot of fighting. Mostly when SHE finally showed up. Danny's little group of survivors knew the drill by now, Danny would fight and they would run and hide and find somewhere safe until Danny came back. He always came back.

Most days he lost his fights, although sometimes, on rare occasions, he would get the best of her and come out on top. This was not one of those days.

"This isn't you Sam."

Words he had spoken over and over at every encounter to the point that they felt funny on his tongue and sounded more like a mere noise than words with meaning. Danny didn't know why he kept saying them, at first he had hoped to see some kind of reaction, something of his friend in the glowing green eyes he spoke to, but now it seemed the words came out of his mouth purely out of habit.

Sam leaned closer to Danny, his body strung up by vines, binding his limbs. She stroked a dirt encrusted finger along his face, slowly and gently, as though caressing something of great value.

"This IS me Danny. The real me. The me that I always could have been but was just too powerless to become."

She was standing close to him now, suspended by her own vines, holding her up to his height. Both sets of eyes stared into each other, an intense, bright green.

"That's not true, it's just what Undergrowth wants you to think. He's controlling you Sam. You're not a murderer."

Danny spat the last word out like it was something vile on his tongue. Sam's face twisted into something dark and furious. Her hair stood on end, the vines tangled around Danny's arms and legs curled up at the tips and the whole jungle vibrated with rustling noise.

"NOBODY controls me! Least of all that despicable, cruel, murderous monster Undergrowth!"

This… was something new.

'Something new' was a novelty these days. In a jungle where everything looked the same and the only new things that happened were directly hazardous to their health, things that strayed from their routine were treated with instant intrigue and fear.

Danny's previous mentions of Undergrowth had elicited a note of contempt from Sam. He didn't know what had been happening between them and any further promptings would leave him being thrown through the air and usually landing in a tree or on a rock and that would be the end of discussion. Never had her reaction to his name been this… violent.

"Did… something happen between you?"

Danny's curiosity spoke for him, leaving his common sense to panic over the possibility of being thrown into another solid object. Luckily, this time, Sam seemed to be in a talkative mood. Or she simply needed someone to vent to, Danny had always been there to listen to her angry rants in the past.

The pang of nostalgia following those thoughts hit Danny harder than he wanted to admit. He blinked his oncoming tears away rapidly.

"Things have been happening between us from the start." Sam spat. "You think I wanted him to kill all those people? I didn't want anything to do with it, I didn't want HIM to do it!" breathing heavy, Sam ran a hand through her tangled knots of hair, placing on a face of calm. "He won't be killing anyone any more anyway."

Danny's eyes widened, did this mean…?

"You killed him?"

Sam turned away from Danny, looking thoughtful. Taking a few steps she mused almost to herself.

"Well… I don't know if it's possible to kill a ghost, but I certainly took care of his body." A sly grin crept onto her face, and she looked back at Danny over her bare shoulder. "Parts of him can be found in the bellies of all the lovely little herbivores at the zoo, the ones he wanted to feed to his plants." at this her face darkened again and she twisted her body to face Danny, clenching her fists. "Undergrowth was trying the twist the laws of nature in unnatural ways and I couldn't let him keep getting away with that!"

"So what about all those people out there, the ones that your jungle is killing!" Danny shifted his weight, trying in vain to throw off the vines binding him. "You've taken over their homes and thrown them into a world they don't belong in-"

"And still they're surviving!" Sam threw herself in front of Danny in a sudden excited burst, "They're THRIVING Danny! I've grown countless plants that they can eat or use! They can live off berries and fruit and vegetables, they can even hunt for their own meat!" Sam placed her hands on either side of Danny's confused face. "No more animals in cramped cages being force fed only to await death. If you want meat in this jungle, you have to hunt for it, like carnivorous animals hunt for their prey, the way nature intended it!" her eyes bright with excitement, Sam continued, "I even saw a woman giving birth the other day, a baby! Being raised in my jungle! A new generation of people who will live and hunt as one with the animals! Doesn't that sound amazing to you? Doesn't that sound perfect?"

Danny could feel her breath on his cheek, brushing his skin in short bursts. As much as he didn't want to admit it, as much as he tried to fight the thought gnawing at the edge of his mind, he couldn't help but wonder if he was wrong. If this really was the Sam he knew. The world she had created, it was the utopia his friend had sometimes fantasised about, the world she had, once or twice, claimed to be her perfect vision of The Way it Should Be.

But even if it was… even so…

"Sam…" Danny's voice came out rough and raspy, he swallowed and continued. "I can't let this go on." Sam's glowing, happy face slowly started to fall. "You do know that don't you?"

Sam slowly drew away from Danny, her hands brushing down his face to his neck before resting on his chest, over the symbol she had created for him.

"I know… I just hoped maybe…" she bit her lip, blinking rapidly. "I just hoped I could get you to see things my way." she looked up at him with moist eyes. "But I guess… I knew it wouldn't happen. You're too determined, you're too…" she looked around, struggling for a word she couldn't place before huffing lightly and locking eyes with her friend. "You're too good."

Danny kept silent as the vines keeping him bound loosened and lowered him and Sam to the ground. She roughly wiped a few tears from her eyes and Danny felt a bizarre urge to comfort her, despite knowing that things weren't like before, things didn't work like they used to. Sam was his enemy now not his friend. You don't comfort the enemy.

Sam expected Danny to leave after she let him go. He always did, he had his little group to get back to. They were in no danger, Sam always took care of them while Danny was gone, she knew he would be upset if they were harmed. She didn't like seeing him upset, he was supposed to be her enemy, but that didn't stop the emotions she felt, the feelings she had for him.

A tear rolled down her cheek and a gloved hand rose up to wipe it away before a flash of light lit up the back of her eyelids and a set of warm, human arms wrapped around her. Laying her head on Danny's chest, Sam leaned into the embrace. It made no sense. It shouldn't have been happening. Things weren't the same and they couldn't go back to the way they were. They had come too far now.

But still.

The two enemies stood together. Her arms around his waist and his around her shoulders. He breathed in the earthy scent of her tangled mess of hair and she listened to the steady beat of his heart.

"Why do we even bother fighting any more?" Sam could feel his chest rumble against her face as he spoke. "It never gets us anywhere."

"Because we feel like we're achieving something maybe?" she murmured into the fabric of his shirt. "Since we're enemies and all, we can't just ignore each other until our problems go away."

Danny glanced down at her, "But to defeat you I'd have to kill you… but I can't."

"I know." Sam breathed, still resting her head on Danny's chest, her eyes closed. "And to stop you from trying to destroy my jungle, I'd have to kill you… but I can't."

"…I know."

"So we're at a stand still." Sam said, raising her head to meet Danny's blue eyes.

"I guess." his eyes flickered over her thin, sharp face as she took in the shape of his square jaw. Sam rose up on her toes to reach his face.

"Maybe we fight because it relieves tension," she leaned in, lips brushing across his neck, "and stress." her hands wandered across his chest and she felt him shiver. "But I know another… activity that could do the same. That maybe… we might enjoy a little bit more."

Danny's breath hitched.

* * *

_They gon' frick_

_Also my headcanon is that Sam isn't as against killing animals for food as she is against the process in which they do it (inhumane factory conditions, battery farming etc), humanely killing for survival like a natural predator? A-okay in her book (even if she wouldn't do it herself), if you have a problem with this that's totally fine! Everyone has their opinions... I just don't want to hear it, so if I get any reviews about this you will promptly be ignored._

_Hope you enjoyed, have a nice day_


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